Our investment process starts with an Investment Policy Statement or guidelines for making investment decisions.
Investment Selection
We believe that markets are efficient. We use investment managers that seek to exploit areas of historically higher returns in the markets in a way that minizes expenses and taxes where possible. We can't control markets. We can control the amount of risk we are taking, the expenses in our portfolios and to some degree, the tax efficiency of our investments.
Continual Monitoring
Every quarter, we meet as a team to review all of our portfolios and make any changes we believe are warranted. Perhaps a long-time investment manager is retiring and we're not comfortable with his/her replacement. Other times, we may feel that an investment has realized its potential and other market segments offer a more attractive risk/reward potential. During the fourth quarter, we seek to lower the tax impact of gains in the portfolio.